Things are a little awkward around Firehouse 51 in tonight’s newest episode of Chicago Fire. Severide is purposely avoiding his girlfriend as she prepares for the lieutenant’s test, and Sylvie is purposely avoiding Casey for…well obvious reasons. All of this, plus a mystery surrounding an assignment given to Boden is what makes up the episode of the show’s return after a 2-week break.

After learning that the only reason Kidd is going to pass the test is because he’s respected in the department, Severide is staying out of the way of his girlfriend, which she’s picking up on. It gets to the point that he invites himself on Boden’s assignment to take a look at buildings condemned by the fire department to make sure everything is in order. On the other hand, Casey gets Sylvie’s cold shoulder as the team is called out on a car accident, where a massive LED billboard car has crashed into another car. As the team works to rescue the woman trapped in her car, Casey calms the woman, named Sydney, down, and they make the safe rescue, not without a little bit of flirting beforehand.

While 51 cleans up the streets, a neighboring firetruck arrives, and one of the firemen in that crew, Chuck Rutledge, bickers with Mouch, showing that there’s a little bit of history with these two vets. This problem is revealed to be about how Rutledge was sitting in Mouch’s spot on the couch, and it escalated into a massive prank war.

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As Boden and Severide board up a building, they discuss their fathers who have passed on, and how Severide still is reminded of his father at random moments in his life, and Boden says that he’s the same about his father, who served as a police officer. Upon arriving at another house, it appears that someone has torn off the boards and is inside. Boden and Severide save an older man inside the house who fell through the stairs, but he doesn’t reveal his name leaving behind only a number: 24198. The hospital tells them that since they don’t know his name, he will be going under a John Doe register with the Chicago PD.

As Kidd prepares for the lieutenant’s test with Sylvie, Sydney, the victim in the car crash, arrives at the firehouse looking for Casey. She gives Casey her card and asks him out, and Casey agrees to see her (while through in a social distant date joke, remember this is happening in COVID!)

The prank war with Mouch and Rutledge continues as the Mouch puts a sign making fun of his old rival and his love of donuts outside Firehouse 40, and the lieutenant of that group, Greg Grainger, asks Casey if Sylvie is seeing anyone. While they look at the prank, Gianna mentions to Gallo that her kids are great pranksters, leaving Gallo nervous that he might be crushing on someone who already has kids. Rutledge then responds with a big billboard of Mouch giving donuts out at the firehouse for free.

At Molly’s, Greg, and Sylvie start flirting with drinks in hand, and a jealous Casey watches from afar. Thoughts on that later.

Kidd confronts Severide about his evasive behavior towards her, and he shrugs her off, leaving both of them just a little bit uncomfortable.

Back at the house where 24198 was, Severide finds a hat with the number written on it, which is shown to be a badge number. After an investigation, Henry Sidwell is revealed to be the mystery man, who has been suffering from dementia and wandered off to the house, since he and his wife used to live there. An emotional Boden reunites the two and has him thinking about his own life and how time can go by quickly.

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Gallo and Mouch dump a huge truck of donuts on the steps of Firehouse 40, but a call from a construction site prevents them from gloating. The construction site was getting demolished when the charges went off too early, and Gianna finds herself taking care of a victim when another charge goes off. Thankfully, Gallo sprints like a madman over to her before the charge goes off and covers her and the victim. They give each other the look of “you just saved me, so I’m gonna kiss you,” but no kiss comes since there’s work to do. Gallo tries to ask Gianna out on a date to the playground and to bring her kid, but she said she was referencing a kid at a daycare that her parents run, she just calls them “my kids.” As the laughter subsides from that awkward moment, Rutledge drops a literal helicopter full of donuts on top of Firehouse 51, and Mouch waves a white flag to surrender. These firefighters sure have a lot of time on their hands…

As the episode ends, as usual at Molly’s, Boden advises Severide about facing troubles at home rather than avoiding them, because avoiding issues make everything worse. Boden then receives an urgent phone call and ducks out, and Casey sits at the other end of the bar, about to call up Sydney, opening the door to a new romance. Severide discovers that Kidd left his apartment because of the strain in their relationship.

Boden finds Henry Sidwell and tells him he can’t go back to that boarded-up house, but to hold onto the memories of the house like he has the memories of his father, and the episode ends with Henry giving Boden his police hat as a reminder of the memories.

Here’s where I’m at when it comes to some of the subplots of Fire: I like the fun little prank war of Mouch and his old co-worker. I’m okay with the Severide and Kidd subplot. While Severide isn’t being the best boyfriend in the world, his intentions are there, I just wish he would tell her that he’s avoiding her to make her want to work harder. It’s the Casey and Sylvie subplot line that I can’t really get behind. They had their flirtation, but Sylvie shut it down, yet continues to be jealous of him. I’m sure the show is going to gear around to them getting together eventually, I just think that the characterization of the two’s relationship is something that needs to the re-examined.

The main plotline of the episode was great: it’s rare we see Boden so emotionally vulnerable behind that stoic nature he has, so it was wonderful to see an episode where we get to see what emotion hides behind that big mustache of his. However, besides the Mouch plot, there was something left to be desired. The show is going to continue the Severide/Kidd, and Sylvie/Casey plotlines probably through the rest of the season, so I hope they can come to a resolution soon because it’s getting a little clunky for a show that has been going for nine seasons.

What did you think of the newest episode of the NBC hit? Leave a comment below.